KIRKUS REVIEW

In her debut novel, Fallon (You Know When the Men Are Gone,
2011) takes the Army wives who were the subject of her previous short story
collection and moves them overseas, where political unrest is fomenting in the
wake of the Arab Spring.

Cass Hugo and her husband, Dan, have been at the U.S. Embassy in
Jordan for two years when Dan signs them up to sponsor a new family: Margaret
and Crick Brickshaw and their baby, Mather. Cass is a portrait of bitterness;
her lack of success conceiving a child has not only strained her marriage, but
convinced her that she's disqualified from making friends with the other
embassy wives. So though Cass resents the sponsorship and seems to dislike
Margaret, she's determined to be the new woman's friend, at least partly
because she thinks the sometimes disconcertingly naïve Margaret needs her experienced
guidance. But as they get to know each other, what emerges between them is a
philosophical divide about their roles as foreigners and their responsibilities
as military spouses. Where Cass follows the embassy’s rules of conduct to the
letter and is happiest replicating American experiences, Margaret behaves more
instinctively, engaging with the culture and people around her as she sees fit.
The fissures in their friendship widen, and Cass is trying to make amends when
Margaret goes missing. As Cass watches Mather and waits for news, she finds
Margaret’s journal and discovers not only the extent of their differences, but
her own possible role in her friend's disappearance. For all that these women
appear designed for a morality play, they are honest and well-formed
characters, and Fallon strenuously avoids pat answers to the central question
of how a woman should behave in a foreign land.

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